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ADP Report: 200,000 Private-Sector Jobs Added in July

Businesses boosted their July payrolls at faster pace than economists thought and June's number was revised higher, according to a tally of private-sector hiring released Wednesday.

Private-sector jobs in the U.S. increased by 200,000 in July, according to a national employment report calculated by payroll processor Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) and forecasting firm Moody's Analytics.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected ADP to report a July advance of 183,000 private jobs. The June ADP employment increase was revised to an increase of 198,000 jobs, from 188,000 reported a month ago.

"The job market has admirably weathered the fiscal headwinds, tax increases and government spending cuts. This bodes well for the next year when those headwinds are set to fade," the report said.

According to ADP, firms employing between 1 and 49 workers increased jobs by 82,000 in July. Midsize businesses with payrolls of 50 to 499 workers hired 60,000 new employees. Large firms, businesses with 500 or more employees, added 57,000 workers.

Service-sector jobs increased by 177,000 this month, but the factory sector, which has been struggling, cut 5,000 positions.

On Tuesday, Bright.com said it estimated 178,000 new jobs were created in July. The job search engine company uses its aggregation of job postings along with government, financial, real estate, and other data sources.

These job estimates are being released ahead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' employment situation report scheduled for Friday. The BLS report counts both private and government payroll slots.

According to the median forecast of economists, July nonfarm payrolls grew by 183,000 new positions, which would be less than the 195,000 jobs created in June. The July unemployment rate is forecast to fall to 7.5% from June's 7.6%.

Federal Reserve officials have tied any discussion about their bond-buying program to substantial improvement in the labor markets.